What’s the best diet for losing fat? Q & A with Owner and Coach Mario Ashley (Part 1)

The solution to losing fat is simple yet most difficult to understand for anyone looking to lose weight and body fat quickly. “The best diet is the one you can stick to.”

The reason why the best diets are they ones we can stick to is that fat loss takes time. Although many people come to us wanting to lose excess body fat by tomorrow they forget to realize that the weight gain didn’t happen overnight. It takes time to lose fat which is why patience is the most valuable skill for anyone looking to lose fat.

Our Golden Pyramid of Nutrition has greatly helped guide our members through the confusing world of nutrition protocols. No one diet will ever provide a magic fix. It still takes discipline (consistent effort) to be successful at losing fat.

So you never answered my question. Whats the best diet for losing fat?

Ha! You’re funny. I really hate having to give a black or white answer but if I had to I would say. “Keep it simple, keep it honest, keep it real.” What I mean by that is that when I ask people how their diet is going they reply ” it’s going well.” What does that even mean?

“Good” for means no rice, alcohol or bread. Good for you might mean not eating fast food in the past week. I try to get my clients to be more honest with themselves because the fact of the matter is that if they don’t get real with themselves soon they will eventually quit our program. Its difficult to train in a program like ours being excessively overweight.

CrossFit came up with a slogan over a decade ago in exactly 100 words to define world-class fitness. The founder Greg Glassman said this:

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.

I swear to God if people followed a nutrition protocol of the first four words, “eat meat and vegetables” they would get amazing results. Unfortunately, this thing called the internet has made the concept of weight management much harder than it needs to be.

What do you consider overweight?

Being overweight and obese are two different things. Being obese is an excessive form of being overweight and studies prove a greater propensity for chronic disease for those that are obese such as diabetes, stroke, and cancer.

I think the textbook answer for obesity is a body fat percentage of 25% and above for men and 32% body fat for women.

So to me being overweight is anything between one’s ideal body fat percentage and obese. For me, my ideal body fat percentage for my age should be around 13% so if I’m not sitting around that I’m considered under the obesity percentage of 25% then I would be considered overweight. Does that make sense?

What are your favorite diet protocols to prescribe to new members?

I really like the Whole Life Challenge. This program came from a former CF gym owner. They offer different tiers of “clean eating” depending on how hardcore you want to be. They’ve gamified weight loss by adding a point system that encourages you to get the most points possible per day depending on the track you chose to follow. I also really like the Paleo Diet and Whole30.

How did you come up with the “LookFit Challenge”

Having been in business now for over 8 years I noticed that people could get really fit in my program but not really lose body fat. They were getting stronger, faster, and better equipped at functional movement but if you saw them on the street they didn’t look fit.

If the ultimate goal of training the way we do is to look good then we have to acknowledge how important nutrition is as well. There is no doubt in my mind that they are willing to put in the work physically. They give me all they got every time I coach them.

Unfortunately, they aren’t giving me all they got on the nutrition side.

For some of these people, they get so sick and tired of not getting the fat loss results that they hoped for and quit. It’s a real shame. We are trying to do more by adding more programs and services for them but I can’t do it all for them. How does the saying go?..”You can lead a horse to the river but you can’t force them to drink it.”